This discussion is the result of a
question sent to me by Brian Maginnity, who sent the two scans at the left
and wanted to know where the heck the hat went. The answer involves how a
company decided to market one of the most famous hardboiled
detectives in literary history. (I say "discussion" because if anyone
wishes to add a comment, I'll post it on this page.)

Paperback Parade #16 is Gary Lovisi's
"Richard Prather Special Edition," and was published in 1990. Prather died
in 2007. His last novel, Shellshock, was published in 1987
by Tor Books. Two of his pseudonyms are represented at the left, but in
the PP article, the author states that all of his major characters are
based on his concept of Shell Scott.

Gold Medal 127 was Prather's first
published novel, and it introduced the famous PI. In Prather's words,
"Sheldon Scott was born in 1949, when he was 30 years old." And, of
course, he never aged a day for the rest of his life.

Gold Medal used a staff of
artists, and the specific illustrators for many of its covers are unknown.

It is not odd that a book's cover will
have little in common with its actual character, but Prather did a pretty
good job of describing his detective. One of Mr. Scott's outstanding
physical characteristics was his hair, which was so blonde as to be almost
white. On paperback covers, this feature was routinely covered with a
fedora, then overemphasized, then ignored altogether as he was given dark
hair, then blonde again, and finally white as snow.

The man that eventually came to grips
with what the character would look like was Barye Phillips, who did most
of the covers to the left (GM 341, 413, 551, 770, s817 & 830), as well as
the two images at top.

Eventually, that particular pose
became the standard for all the Shell Scott novels. But to emphasize the
hair to the greatest extent, Phillips first lost the hat, and then began
to "float" the image of the detective above (or alongside) other artwork
that is intended to illustrate the story.

That particular feature had already
proven effective with another serial detective at Dell Publishing:
Brett Halliday's Mike Shayne series, in which Robert Stanley's
illustration of Shayne (actually a Stanley self-portrait) is always seen
floating above the famous Robert McGinnis cover art.

The concept followed Shell Scott when
his creator switched to Pocket Book in the 1970's, and while the
now-famous Barye Phillips image could not make the leap between
publishers, Scott's general appearance remained the same.